GAO upholds $1.4B e-travel award

Sep. 24, 2012 - 04:40PM
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The Government Accountability Office on Monday denied a protest of the General Services Administration's $1.4 billion e-travel contract award.

Incumbent vendor CWT Sato Travel claimed in its June protest that the 15-year contract award to Washington-based Concur Technologies Inc. would create a monopoly on federal travel services for all civilian agencies. The company also claimed that GSA did not evaluate bid offers on a common basis; that GSA was misleading in its discussions with the company and that the agency's justification for making a single award was inadequate.

However, GAO found that the evaluation process was “reasonable and consistent with [the] solicitation's evaluation criteria” and that GSA treated all bidders equally. Ralph White, GAO's managing associate general counsel for procurement law, said in an emailed statement that “GSA did not mislead CWT during discussions, and GSA's determination to make a single award was adequate and reasonable.”

White said GAO would not release the decision because it contains proprietary and other sensitive information. But the agency is working with lawyers for Concur and CWT to release a public version of the decision.

The government's Federal Travel Regulation requires civilian agencies to use e-travel services through GSA. Agencies will eventually have to transition to GSA's new governmentwide e-travel system from one of three other systems in use today.

The current contracts end in November 2013, but GSA has bridge contracts with current vendors to help agencies that can't meet that deadline.